Hampton Roads lawmakers, dozens of former attorneys general from Virginia and across the country, and a former head of the NAACP all seek to overturn former Gov. Bob McDonnell's conviction on public corruption charges.

Among other briefs filed Monday was one from law professors contending federal anti-corruption statutes are too broad, and calling for reversing his conviction.

The filings seek to influence the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which will hear McDonnell's appeal on 11 federal corruption counts. A jury convicted him in September; he was sentenced in January and remains free while his case is on appeal.

Support for McDonnell came from Republicans and Democrats. A separate brief was to be filed by members of the Virginia General Assembly arguing that state - not federal - laws should have governed McDonnell's actions in office, one local lawmaker said.

"There's no doubt that the governor made some poor judgments, but a lot of us signed onto the brief with the argument that states have the right to produce their own laws," said Del. Ron Villanueva, R-Virginia Beach. "And according to the state law, the governor did not break laws."

In response to the McDonnell case, Virginia lawmakers passed laws to restrict the value of gifts politicians can accept from lobbyists.

The lawmakers' brief had not yet appeared in online court filings Monday evening.

Six former Virginia attorneys general wrote that jury instructions were erroneous and prosecutors overreached in the case.

"The expansive interpretation of federal law on which his conviction is based is erroneous," they wrote. "It is completely alien to any legal advice that any of us would have given to any Governor of Virginia," said former Virginia attorneys general Andrew Miller, Anthony Troy, Mary Sue Terry and Stephen Rosenthal, all Democrats, and Republicans J. Marshall Coleman and Mark Earley.

If it stands, the interpretation would "wreak havoc" on public life and cast "a shadow of federal prosecution and imprisonment across normal participation in the democratic process," they said.

Additionally, 44 former state attorneys general argued that the definition of an "official act" in McDonnell's case could make picking up the check for even a modest dinner for an official illegal.

His convictions represent a "drastic, legislatively unsanctioned expansion of the federal police power," that brief says. "Basing federal criminal prosecutions on common political pleasantries would extend the federal government's reach far too deeply into state political life."

A jury convicted McDonnell and his wife, former first lady Maureen McDonnell, after hearing evidence that they accepted $177,000 in gifts and loans from businessman Jonnie Williams Sr.

Williams was seeking state-backed medical research for his company's dietary supplement, and jurors found that the McDonnells took official action on his behalf in exchange for the gifts and loans.

The former governor, while admitting he made mistakes, insists he broke no law. He was sentenced to two years in prison and his wife to one year and one day.

Several law professors filed a brief arguing federal anti-corruption statute is too broad. That brief was drafted by Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts and a senior lecturer at Harvard; Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a law professor at Harvard; and John Jeffries, a law professor at the University of Virginia, a critic of the statute under which the McDonnells were convicted.

They wrote: "If the law is not clear, it cannot give adequate notice to citizens of how to conform their conduct to the law. And it follows that prosecutors - in good or bad faith - can pick and choose not just what to prosecute but whom."

U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell of Virginia Beach, a Republican, signed onto a brief with other business and political leaders, many of whom wrote letters supporting McDonnell before his sentencing.

Benjamin Jealous, former head of the NAACP, said in his brief that Judge James Spencer didn't adequately screen the jury for potential bias based on pre-trial publicity.

Villanueva said McDonnell sought out state lawmakers' support in recent days. He was glad to add his name to the brief. "It's like a friend reaching out to you."

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